and air conditioning

Christian de Looper / Digital Trends Carmakers are in the process of reinventing the wheel. While some companies are simply slapping an electric powertrain in an existing chassis and calling it a day, the majority of companies are taking the transition to electrified as an opportunity to redesign their lineups completely — both outside and in. Just look at the EV6, a car that would be impossible to imagine in Kia’s lineup just five years ago. But while the fresh and new exterior designs are fun to look at, it’s the…

Christian de Looper / Digital Trends Over the past few years, car companies have been focusing a whole lot more effort into their infotainment systems and car tech overall, making for a sleeker interior and more modern experience. But for many of them, that means pushing many controls, including climate controls, into the screen. Usually, this is a bad thing. To be clear, I’m not against digital climate controls entirely, but I am against poorly implemented versions that require more than a few taps to change…

The climate crisis is raising summertime temperatures, and the sky-high heat is straining electrical grids and healthcare systems. A pilot program launched this year is working to address potential heat injuries before they happen.How to Know If the Heat Is Making You Sick“The basic idea is that heat-related deaths, and heat-related health problems including hospitalizations, are preventable,” Caleb Dresser, the director of healthcare solutions at Harvard’s School of Public Health. “We make sure patients have the…

New research this month adds more fuel to the debate over gas stoves. The study found that gas and propane stoves emitted detectable amounts of benzene, a common air pollutant and carcinogen. Benzene levels were often above recommended safety thresholds and could linger for hours after the stoves were turned off in some homes.Republicans Create Culture War Over… Stoves Earlier this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission made headlines after one of its commissioners, Richard Trumka Jr, suggested that the agency might…

Popular large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are energy intensive, requiring massive server farms to provide enough data to train the powerful programs. Cooling those same data centers also makes the AI chatbots incredibly thirsty. New research suggests training for GPT-3 alone consumed 185,000 gallons (700,000 liters) of water. An average user’s conversational exchange with ChatGPT basically amounts to dumping a large bottle of fresh water out on the ground, according to the new study.…

Battery-powered, self-heating insoles can help keep your feet extra toasty during winter activities, but few of us want to charge our shoes. Solecooler’s Climfeet insoles promise to not only warm your feet without the use of chemical reactions or batteries, but to also cool them when temperatures soar. Better yet, the only power source they need is your footsteps.Even the most advanced battery-powered heating insoles, whichgenerate heat as a by-product of a chemical reaction, only last for about 10 hours. That’s long…

Image: Gizmodo/Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)I have something to admit: I’m not a fan of induction ranges.I know, I know, a climate reporter not being totally sold on electric stoves. It’s actually due entirely to the limits of my own personal experience. My parents installed an electric range in their kitchen a few years ago, and the thing sucks. It’s got a touch pad to increase the heat settings that’s glitchy as all hell, and I haven’t gotten the hang of how to properly sauté stuff on it.And yet, I’m going to…

When it comes to the health of our environment, it can often feel like everything is falling apart. But a recent assessment from the United Nations environment program offers a rare bit of relief: The ozone layer is on track for a full recovery by 2066. The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to protect our ozone signed in 1987, has been a success, declared the U.N.-backed scientific panel in a report first released in October 2022 and formally presented on Monday at the American Meteorological Society…

Photo: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)New research points to an under-appreciated cause of childhood asthma: gas stoves. The study estimates that about one in every eight cases in the U.S. can be attributed to the indoor pollution emitted by gas stoves. The findings are only the latest to highlight the harmful effects of this ubiquitous way of cooking.Gas stoves have been around since the 1800s, and over 40 million homes in the U.S., or more than one third of households, are thought to still rely on them today. For several…

Image: Joe Techapanupreeda (Shutterstock)Climate change is throwing a wrench into an unexpected place: the workings of data centers. As the frequency of heat waves grows worldwide, these critical pieces of technology infrastructure are melting down more and more often, threatening a foundational element of the internet.In July, Google’s and Oracle’s London-based data centers were forced offline when Britain experienced record-high temperatures of over 40 degrees celsius. The heat wave rendered their data center cooling…